Federal Officials Issue Electronic Logging Devices Rule for HOS

Last week, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) released its long-awaited final rule for mandating Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs) for Hours of Service (HOS) compliance. Unfortunately, as we anticipated, the final rule does hold a requirement for the industry to install and use ELDs. While there are a lot of items contained in the rule that will need to be fleshed out, the main provisions concerning the ready mixed concrete industry include:

1. Short-haul drivers that are able to take advantage of the 100 air-mile logging exemption are exempt from installing and using ELDs. However, if a driver exceeds the exemption thresholds (works past 12 hours, or drives past 100 air miles) at least 8 days in any 30-day period, then that driver/truck will need to install and use ELDs until the rolling 30-day period is reset. This is essentially the Trojan horse that requires ELDs in all Commercial Motor Vehicles (CMVs). Unfortunately, the ready mixed concrete industry will potentially trip this threshold during large jobs or during the busy months;

2. ELDs will only be required in trucks manufactured after the year 2000;

3. New paperwork retention requirements and specific ELD configuration requirements;

4. The rule will be effective 60 days after it’s published in the Federal Register (December 16, 2015); and

5. Carriers will have two years from the date of publication in the Federal Register to install and start using ELDs (December 18, 2017).

NRMCA is still combing through the 516-page rule, so there will be more analysis yet to come. As well, in early 2016 NRMCA plans to hold a Webinar that will cover the new HOS changes contained in the FAST Act along with these new ELD requirements. On the advocacy front moving forward, NRMCA believes that given the progress made on HOS requirements contained in the FAST Act, those provisions hold the potential for possible remedies specific for the ready mixed concrete industry.

The pre-published final rule can be found here. For more information, contact Kevin Walgenbach at kwalgenbach@nrmca.org.